


Mission night out

by unknownlifeform



Category: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Dubious Morality, Gen, Implied Murder, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mentioned Zack Fair, Mission Fic, Shinra Company
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:35:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28131012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknownlifeform/pseuds/unknownlifeform
Summary: Over the years, Cissnei had had to do many jobs she hadn't liked. Some of those she had actively hated. That didn't mean she hadn't carried them to term, because she was a Turk, and a Turk did what she was told to do. She was also entitled to disliking certain missions, however.
Relationships: Cissnei & Zack Fair
Kudos: 7
Collections: Midgar Blues: A Turks Zine - Fic Collection





	Mission night out

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the zine Midgar Blues

Over the years, Cissnei had had to do many jobs she hadn't liked. Some of those she had actively hated. That didn't mean she hadn't carried them to term, because she was a Turk, and a Turk did what she was told to do. She was also entitled to disliking certain missions, however.

Surveillance jobs weren't usually bad, but high profile ones were a strain on the Department’s resources and on anyone's nerves. Keeping an eye on someone important and potentially dangerous was stressful, especially if it was to be done for a long time. And it was particularly unpleasant when the target decided to make the wrong move, and the higher ups changed the job description to ‘interrogation’ followed by 'execution'.

Some of her colleagues, the more violent ones, actually preferred it when they had to get rid of someone as opposed to just spying them. Cissnei didn't share that point of view. Violence was a means to an end, but she preferred to avoid it if it wasn’t necessary.

While not the worst thing she had had to do, crouching on emergency exit stairs in a badly lit alley in January for the better part of the night was also far from pleasant. Junon was close to the sea, but winter was winter. Cissnei had to keep doing warming up exercises, least she wanted her limbs to get too stiff.

She didn't know if she would have preferred being in Emma's place now. On one hand, she was in a warm place. On the other, said place was a club, where she had to dance in skimpy clothes to try and get their target's attention. It wasn't the kind of environment Cissnei felt at ease in. Her life had revolved around joining the Turks first, and being a Turk later, and partying had never been a priority. She preferred to spend a night at a bar with her colleagues rather than grinding on some stranger.

Emma wasn't a party goer either, but someone had to do the job, and given the target was a strictly heterosexual man, bait duty had fell to one of the only two women on the mission. They'd tossed a coin, and Emma had lost.

Hopefully it would work. This was the third attempt at a kidnapping. At this point Cissnei was starting to consider the merits of just breaking into his house.

The unfortunate thing was that Marcus Jackson was rich. He ran a fairly successful technological industry, a position that would have eventually put him in Shinra's bad graces, even without certain rumors reaching Veld's ears. His house was full of security cameras and alarms, making even just surveilling him a nightmare. Turning off the systems to get into the building safely would be possible, but a real pain. Better to keep that plan as a last resort.

Cissnei truly hated when her job involved rich people. 

Finally, her earpiece crackled.

" _ Gun here. He took the bait. _ "

Cissnei replied immediately. "Shuriken here. This side is clear."

Using code names was a necessity for this specific job. They had to make sure that if anyone was listening in to their conversations, they wouldn't easily find out who they were. Even if the Turks were already Shinra's most obscure Department, it was better to make themselves as unrecognizable as possible.

Cissnei silently walked down the stairs, keeping herself out of any light. There was a smokers exit in the alley. No one else was there, nor had anyone walked by in a good twenty minutes.

Soon after, Emma walked out, grabbing a cigarette Cissnei knew was just for show. Right behind her came Jackson. With a bodyguard.

If it wasn't that Cissnei was doing her best not to make a single sound, she would have huffed. Did that bodyguard really have to follow his boss even as Jackson tried to score a one night stand? It was frankly excessive. Either this man was beyond dedicated to his job, or Jackson was feeling particularly paranoid.

Jackson wouldn't be wrong to. Dirty conscience, he knew Shinra would catch wind of the way he was sending money to AVALANCHE cells. Give Shinra trouble, give his own company an advantage.

The bodyguard was trouble, but he could be dealt with. He turned his gaze upwards, fixing it on the windows of the building in front of him, probably to give the others a semblance of privacy. Jackson went to chat Emma up. She didn't seem entirely comfortable, but she was doing a good job at making it seem that it was the bodyguard's presence that unnerved her.

He was standing between Cissnei and Jackson. That meant she would be the one to take care of the bodyguard, while Emma dealt with the target.

She already had the Materia ready. She got as close to the trio as she dared, and casted Sleepel. The bodyguard didn't even have time to notice the spell, he just slumped down like a potato sack.

Emma took the hint immediately. She had sneaked in her own Materia, and when Jackson turned to see what was going on, she had already started casting. He was out cold in seconds.

"You done with the fun already?" 

Cissnei turned, seeing Katana coming from the other end of the alley, the one that opened on the main road. He'd been tasked with walking around the block, checking for possible disturbances. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, but there's a bunch of people coming this way. Drunk, I'd say, but it's better to hurry up."

"Let's move, I'm freezing," Emma said, shaking a little in her club clothes.

Katana took Jackson, while Emma and Cissnei moved the bodyguard. Just a couple alleys away, Rod was waiting for them with the car.

"Additional luggage?" he said, seeing the bodyguard.

"Open the trunk," Cissnei said. She and Emma dropped the unconscious man inside, wrapping zip ties around his wrists and ankles and duct tape on his mouth. It would hurt to take it off, but that would also be the least of his problems once he was awake.

Cissnei almost felt sorry for him. He had had no fault in this, only working for the wrong employer at the wrong time. But the job had to be carried out as smoothly as possible, and that meant no eye witnesses.

She climbed in the passenger's seat, while Emma got in the back with Jackson. Rod was the assigned driver, Katana would join them later at the safehouse. Cissnei almost allowed herself to feel relieved when the engine turned on, but she stifled it. Not until it was all over.

The good thing about Junon was that, as an industrial city, it was full of warehouses and abandoned buildings. At night, certain areas were almost deserted, if not for homeless people looking for a place to sleep and the occasional group of rowdy teenagers.

Or club goers. The place they had picked Jackson up at was a relatively new one, built in a former industrial warehouse as part of the recent urban renewal efforts. Not all that far from the more lively parts of Junon, but enough to have very little people walking around. Especially at two in the morning on a Wednesday night. Thursday, by now.

Cissnei was frankly baffled that a man in his late twenties with a company to run would go clubbing on Wednesdays. That seemed like the kind of thing university students with too much free time did. Had to be a rich kid thing, even before his company took off Jackson had come from a rather well off family.

Or maybe Cissnei was the weird one not to see the appeal of wild partying on a weekday.

She kept an eye on the road as Rod drove, making sure no one was following them. Her focus was on any car or person they passed by, but she allowed herself a moment to think of what she would do once she was back in Midgar, if everything went smoothly. Get a long, warm bath, for starters, wash the humid Junon winter from her bones. The car had the heating on, but she still felt cold.

Luckily, there was no trouble as they made their way to the safehouse, taking a road that was twice as long as necessary to cover their tracks. They parked the car inside what used to be a storage near the harbor. 

Katana would deal with covering any traces they might have left, with Reno and Rude’s support, planting fake evidence around so that investigations into Jackson’s disappearance would lead to the local organized crime. Cissnei, Emma and Rod would take care of the hostages.

Hostage. And unfortunate casualty.

"Rod, you deal with the one in the trunk," Emma said, getting out of the car.

"What, too lazy to do it on your own?"

"Just do it."

Rod huffed, and went to do as told. He was the rookie there, after all. All the unpleasant jobs fell to him.

Cissnei and Emma dragged Jackson out of the car, still out cold. A chair had been left for him, with handcuffs already there.

Cissnei pursed her lips as they tied him. This night was going to take a turn for the worse for Jackson once he woke up, but Cissnei wasn't looking forward to it either. A simple execution was a fast, clean job, but they had been tasked with finding out all about Jackson’s contacts with AVALANCHE. Interrogations always left a sour taste in her mouth.

"Should we wake him up?" she asked, once he was secured.

"Wait a moment. I had Rod bring me my suit in the car, I'm not doing this in a miniskirt," Emma replied. "Keep an eye on him."

There was a buzz in Cissnei's pocket as she waited. Frowning, she took out her PHS, trying to figure out who it might be. Anyone else on the mission would just contact her through the earpiece, and the rest of the Turks she was familiar with knew she was off on a job. Sure, they wouldn't know she was currently standing next to a kidnapped man, but-

Ah. Zack. The one friend Cissnei had who wasn't a Turk. She hadn't wanted to give him her number at first, given technically she had been charged with keeping an eye on him, but he had poked at her until she had caved. Given the timezones difference between Midgar and Junon, he probably didn't think he was texting her late in the night.

_ hey! how r u? _

Cissnei glanced at the prisoner. Still asleep.

_ I'm at work now _

_ sorry! am i disturbing? _

_ wanted to ask if u wanted to hang out _

_ Hang out? _

_ at some point _

_ havent seen u in a while _

Cissnei sighed. Zack occasionally asked this, and Cissnei's answer was always no. Being friendly with him was acceptable. He knew she surveilled him, and keeping a good relationship with him simply made things easier. Giving him her number was also acceptable. Hanging out, doing the things Zack usually did with his friends, or Cissnei sometimes did with other Turks, was unprofessional.

Cissnei's job was to make sure Zack would not do anything to harm Shinra. So far, he had behaved well. He was a good SOLDIER, who followed orders and followed them well. But he also had a certain personal ethics code, and that wasn't a good thing to have for a SOLDIER. Or for a Turk, for that matter. Both groups often had to do unethical things for Shinra, even if SOLDIERs often didn't like to be reminded of it.

The day Zack did something out of line, Cissnei would have to report that, and maybe be the one to put him in the position Jackson was now. 

Getting attached to one's charges was not something a Turk could allow themselves to do. They had to learn how to keep themselves emotionally detached. There was a reason if so many of them were orphans, or former criminals, or other lost souls Shinra had given a second chance to. It made the job easier, when Shinra was the only thing in your life you were tied to.

Some people thought it was monstrous for Shinra to raise a child just to make them join the Turks. Cissnei, for her part, had seen how life had turned out for some of the children she used to be at the orphanage with. Shinra had given her a mission in life and a roof over her head, and for that Cissnei was grateful.

And sometimes, showing that gratitude meant doing things Shinra found necessary, even if Cissnei would have preferred not to.

Emma was coming back now, once again in her black Turk suit. She was trying to get rid of her make up as she walked. 

_ Sorry, I won't be available for a while _

_ k :( _

_ dont leave too many bodies in the sewers _

Cissnei shook her head, closing her PHS. That a Turk's job was to hide bodies was a common joke among SOLDIERs. Cissnei wondered sometimes if Zack would be as happy to send that sort of texts if he knew just how many corpses Cissnei had had to deal with in her career.

"Shall we start?" she said, seeing Rod was also joining them. 

Rod didn't have to be told twice, punching Jackson square in the face. The pain broke through the magical sleep, waking him up.

Cissnei crossed her arms and put on her most pacific, lovely smile. It wasn't easy to keep that expression on her face when she watched a man bleed, but it was just another part of the job. It intimidated people to see her appear so calm and relaxed in such situations. She'd make sure to put on her best heartless show for this.

For Shinra.


End file.
